Monday, February 25, 2008

Coach Bubba 20k - training run...

Friday morning and my legs were still reminding me that they moved an entire apartment of furniture and "stuff" (it's amazing how much stuff can accumulate over a year - and how well I can hide it so that I don't even realize how much stuff I have) the weekend before. I had skipped my long run that weekend in place of carrying boxes up and down stairs and loading my car up with all of my precious treasures that I hadn't seen since I put them away and probably wouldn't see again until I moved once more. Nonetheless, it was like the workout of workouts and 5 days later I was still sore.

So the Coach Bubba 20k on Saturday was going to be a training run. Just a nice relaxing run to get my long run in for the weeekend. I got to the Durham Bulls Stadium nice and early to pick up my race packet, which contained my number and my chip (and some nice coupons for local restaurants that I probably wouldn't go to otherwise). Normally at this point I have the pre-race jitters that come from not knowing what to expect in a race. But they hadn't kicked in yet. I headed to the start line and still nothing.

Then the gun went off and the whole hoard of runners surrounding me surged forward. I took off at a comfortable pace. My legs still felt heavy so I took it easy to give them plenty of time to warm up. I knew there were hills ahead.

At the 5k marker I was still at a nice comfortable pace. That was about the last time I was still at that nice comfortable pace. Because a race is a race and although I'd been telling myself all morning that this was just a training run, I knew in the back of my mind that these times would be posted and I wanted to do well. I picked up the pace for awhile despite the feedback from my legs. I hit the hills harder than I planned because I knew 6 miles of flats were ahead. Hahah. Right! By the time I got to the flats, it felt like one long uphill battle.

It was a good run though. All in all, I had a great time. Met some really nice people. Enjoyed my morning. And posted a time that was respectable although not close to where I'd like to be. Now I know where I'm at though, so I'll know what I need to do to get to where I'd like to be!